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For The Love Of The Game
I haven't played ball that long. I started in 5th grade with my guy friends, but even from the beginning I loved it! Every day I played in the blistering heat (I live in Arizona, the valley of the sun) against the guys, usually being the only girl. I eventually got good, as good as an elementary kid can get. Then came middle school. I've always had a lot of girlfriends, and I got closer to them in 7th grade. The only problem was they didn't like basketball. All the guys were to busy hitting on girls they didn't play ball anymore. They said it was to hot, yeah right. I tried out for the team that year, even though I hadn't really played in a year. Well I'm still a little pissed that she picked the team the first day of tryouts (all of the girls on the team she was friends with in her P.E. class by the way) but I got over it. Another year passed and once again I had no one to play with but I tried out any ways. As luck would have I was forced to miss one of the try out days because I had to go for costume fittings for the school play. Once again I didn't make the team. By then I was feeling kind of low and I had noticed that my skill had dropped, which is reasonable to understand. But every now and then I still played. I can still remember playing with a few of my girls against our 2 favorite male teachers. It was so hot but it was the best, I even took down my algebra teacher while going for a rebound. My social studies teacher encouraged me to try out for the team, and when I came back to him telling him I didn't make it he was as shocked as I was. Coming into freshman year I knew I had to get back into my game if I wanted any hope of being on the team. I didn't know there was a basketball camp over the summer so I was already way behind the other girls. Before basketball season they had open gym where the kids could improve on shooting and dribbling. I loved it, finally I was playing again, and having so much fun. My favorite to this day is scrimmage. Nothing is better than playing a real game with friends, just goofing around. Well tryouts came by fast and I finally made the team. I was so happy! I was jumping around telling every one. The first couple of games were thrilling to me, especially being that we won them. Then came our losing streak. Our coach began to yell and run us more. Soon I dreaded going to practice any more. I had difficulty remembering plays on court. Then I sprained my ankle during a game. For the first time in my life I hated basketball. I didn't like the plays because they never worked, and we would get yelled at when we messed up. Our coach ran us every day and we damn near passed out when we had to do 17's. I wasn't being played as much as I used to even when my ankle got better. Practices were hell, all we would do was run and practice plays. After Christmas it got better but I was so happy when the season was over. I took time off from basketball and tried shot put. Once again open gym was available and I went for a while, but it got so tedious that I stopped going. I decided to go to the camp and improve my skills this year. I still love the game, but I find it hypocritical. They say it's a game and it's about having fun, then why are we yelled at when we don't do exactly what the coach says or when we lose. I just want to go back to the days when I played with my friends at school just for fun. I didn't care who won back then, I won a few and lost a few but in the end it was just about cracking jokes and shooting a few hoops. Personally I want to get ride of all the plays and refs and stupid rules. There should be turnovers and fouls but it shouldn't encompass the whole game. It should be what they say it is a game. That's all it really is, a bunch of kids pounding a rubber ball against the ground until they get the chance to shoot it into a metal circle. It’s just a game.
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| Average Grade: A- |
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